You, Me and the Moon
by Floquito
Summary: Millions of years into the future, Viral is left alone when the last of the humans and beastmen die out. When he rescues a strange young female from being swallowed by the ground, it's as if he had come to life for the first time. But was it meant to be?
1. Minka

**Kay… First time writing about Viral from TTGL, so don't kill me with fire. Of course you'll find language, violence, maybe some 'content', if you know what I mean, and anything else crazy and odd that you might or might not expect from a person called Floquito. **

**Read, Review and Rejoice! **

**Minka belongs to me, no stealing please.**

**Viral and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann are © Gainax**

* * *

He lay in his bed, white sheets and spread, alone. It was hot in the desert, but despite the fact, Viral was curled tightly in the blanket. He was awake, golden eyes alert in the darkness of the small room. He sat up, golden hair brushed away from his eyes, staring at himself for a moment in the mirror across from the bed.

Immortality wasn't all it was cracked up to be, apparently. The last beastman had burned out hundreds of thousands of years ago, and the last human had wilted away and died a few thousand years behind him. Roissu, Yoko, even Simon, everybody was gone. Thinking of those numbers, those years, Viral closed his eyes tight and curled his legs up to his chest, resting his head against his knees.

"_The last one… I'm all alone."_

Those years had crawled by, alone and abandoned. At first, Viral thought he could put up with it, he wasn't that social anyways. But as the years dragged into decades, then centuries and millenniums, he thought he would go mad, or implode or something, with the loneliness that suffocated him. He let out a sigh, deep and shaky, and flopped back down onto the bed. He curled himself tightly into the multiple layers of blankets, trying to remind himself of the warm nest from his kittenhood, or try to see what it felt like to be embraced.

Then, he wept. It sounded more like a frightened, crying kitten then anything else, but either way, tears rolled down his cheeks and were absorbed by the white sheets, a few strands of golden hair sticking to his damp face. He clung haplessly to the blankets, hanging on; afraid he might fall asleep forever. Maybe that would've been nicer then facing an eternity of loneliness, or maybe his sleep would be riddled with miserable nightmares like the last times he had slept at all.

At last, worn and exhausted, he began to doze off, the dry desert wind slowly lulling him to sleep. But his ears picked something up, a tiny sound, and he jerked up into a sitting position. It sounded kind of like scratching… Something was scratching on wood with quick, jerky movements, as if it were frightened.

_tssssssht tssssssht tss__ss__ssssst_

It continued for some time, getting quicker. More desperate, almost, then began to fade. It was coming from the front door. Viral quickly got out of bed, not bothering to put on a shirt, and quickly made his way downstairs to the door. Swinging the door open roughly, he stared out into the emptiness of the desert. He stood there, stunned for a moment, then the adrenalin wore off, and he suddenly felt extremely tired. His shoulders slumped and another tear welled in the corner of one eye.

"_Is that how lonely I really am?" _He thought. Viral took a step forward, intending to peek around the corners of the house to see if there was something out there, but instead, he stepped on something soft and cool. He recoiled, and looked down at the porch, only to nearly faint a moment later, but almost too shocked to do so. There, lying on the porch was a hand, white as new paper, clawing at the wood. It seemed to be sinking deep into the wood, into the ground. He wanted to scream, but his throat felt as small as a straw and coated with sandpaper.

Without thinking, he grabbed the hand; cool, almost cold, to his touch. Pulling, trying to get whatever was literally sinking through solid ground back up. He found himself panting; the ground seemed to be pulling whatever the hand was attached to into the ground, sucking it up, but he tried.

A white forearm slipped out from the ground, and Viral briefly wondered if whatever he was pulling up was dead, and if he should just let it go. But the hand that was clenched in his paw gave an encouraging squeeze, so he continued his struggle. Another hand soon came through the ground, and held onto his paw. This time, Viral felt the tight muscles in the arms, and he knew it was struggling to pull itself out as well.

After what seemed like forever, up to the things' waist was visible. This was the first clear look he got, and quickly realized it was a woman, pale as new snow, with golden eyes rivaling his own. She had crow-black hair and was dressed in black clothes that contrasted sharply with her white skin.

Her eyes were intense as she told him, "Don't let go."

"No, I won't." Viral reached forwards and wrapped his arms around her waist, leaning back to pull her out. Suddenly, there was a jerk and she was pulled backwards as the ground bubbled and made disgusting slurping noises as it tried to suck her back down.

She suddenly kicked at whatever was down there, and seemed to land a good shot, because it suddenly released its grip, sending both of them springing backwards. Viral landed on his back flat on the floor, and the woman landed semi-on top of him, but she quickly rolled to the side and onto her back. They both lay there; breathing hard and listening to the thing under the sand gurgle and growl, before fading away.

"A-Are you alright?" Viral asked, leaning on his elbow to take a good look at her. "Oh god, what the hell was that?"

She lay silent, her breath slowed to normal, or below normal, he wasn't sure. Her eyes were closed, and she wasn't moving aside from the slow rise and fall of her chest. He had no idea how long she had been struggling or running from that thing, he just wished he had gotten to the door sooner before she had been sucked under so far. She was surely not a human, displaying some animal-like characteristics like a full three sets of shark-like teeth, much like his, which he saw during the struggle, and the white skin was a sure sign she was no human. But there was barely a chance she could be a beastman either, the last one but Viral burned out so long ago.

Taking a deep breath, he couldn't help but slump down beside her once he knew she was alive. He found himself drained of all energy; the double shot of adrenalin took its toll.

Curling up close beside her, Viral felt a calming wave, like being warm and relaxed, a feeling he hadn't felt in a long while. Just before he fell asleep, he heard her stir the slightest bit, just turning her head a to the side.

"Thanks… My name's Minka."


	2. The New and the Old

Viral stirred from his sleep, snuggling closer to the mysterious woman pulled from the ground. What did she say her name was?

_Minka…_

Yawning, he stretched out an arm and opened his eyes… Nobody was there. He found himself holding onto a pillow, but there was nobody else in the room. He was back in his bedroom, curled into his bed. Viral bolted upright, searching the room, sniffing the air and his paws and smelling only himself, nothing foreign. Getting out of bed, he quickly pulled on a pair of pants and a thin shirt before running downstairs to check.

He nearly tripped over her as he ran down the stairs. She was sitting at the bottom of the stairs, on the third step with a pencil in hand, scribbling something onto a piece of paper pinned to a clip-board. Viral acted without another thought. He grabbed her by the shoulders and stood her up, but realized she was a little heavier then he thought her slender form would be. _"Jeez, I should start working out again…" _He thought in the back of his mind, he hadn't really gotten a lot of food since he was out here in the desert, and he hadn't had a good fight in a long while. He had lost a significant amount of muscle weight because if his new lifestyle, though he was far, far from being bony or skinny.

"M-Minka? Is that you're name? Minka?" Viral stammered, unable to sort out his thoughts, he still held onto the upper portions of her arms, though not squeezing them tight, more like a butterfly resting on your arm in weight, which was a but unexpected from oversized paws like his.

"Yeah, it's Minka," She smiled at him; her white cheeks seem to colour the tiniest bit. Staring at him, Viral noticed she was quite a bit odd looking, but pretty in her own unique way. He barely had time to think about it all, it was so confusing how she even got here, let alone where she came from or what she actually was. Her name wasn't anything he had ever heard before, it wasn't based off DNA like beastmen names were, and it sounded a bit too odd to be a human name.

"Minka…" He rolled the name over in his mouth, unsure of how to really say it. He had thought it was Minka, and that was that, but she seemed to say it more like Mihng-Kah. "Where… How did you get here?" Viral tried to make his thoughts rational, but years upon years without socialization with others had made it a bit difficult. He also realized how he felt had changed… With Lord Genome's armies and with the Gurren Brigade, he had been proud and confident, head held high, when faced with dangerous and strange scenarios. But now, standing in front of this strange pale woman, he felt an inch tall and horribly nervous.

"Well…" She thought for a moment. "I had a mom and a dad; it's a standard I guess. I don't really want to explain how that works, if you know what I mean. I dunno if—"

"Wait, what!? That means you're a human?" Her skin was too pale, literally white as fresh snow, and her teeth… She had three sets of razor sharp teeth, her mouth didn't seem to close properly and always show a bit of her teeth, and her hair was so black it looked as if you could sink into it just by staring for too long. But beastmen had a major flaw, at least in Virals' opinion; they could not reproduce biologically or otherwise.

"No… What makes you think that?" Minka frowned at him, clearly confused as to why he would think of her as a human. Her eyes had become sharper, more vibrant gold, probably because she wasn't tired anymore. She probably slept on the couch during the night or something. Can't exactly say it was comfortable, but he guessed they shared the mutual feeling of awkwardness when you slept in the same bed as a stranger.

"Because beastmen can't reproduce, that's why!" Viral bit his lip, unsure about speaking this way about that subject.

"Yes they can… Or at least the newer models can," She brushed some hair out of her eyes, looking him up and down. "You're an older model, are you? By Lord Genome, right?"

"What do you mean by… Newer or Older model?" Virals' mind was racing, what was she talking about? She was odd, came here in an odd way and her speech was odd.

"I see…" Thinking again. "Never mind then, never mind. You don't really need to know, anyways. It's probably better like that…" Minka paused to think, she seemed like a thinker, not one of those dumb, hollow-headed girls. "I'm not the only one, you know… I can hope that one day you'll join us… But till then, there's not much I can do." She sat down on the white-tan couch, under stuffed and stiff with age.

"Who is 'us'?" He sat down slowly beside her, keeping his eyes locked at hers'. She was quiet, and it seemed that nothing he could say would make her speak again. He bit his lip, mindful of his teeth. "Are you okay?" He asked, suddenly remembering how she was being sucked under by something last night.

"About what happened last night? Yeah, I'm fine; you saved my sorry ass in the nick of time, eh?" She smiled a little, a friendly tug on the corners of her lips. She almost sounded as if she was joking around.

"What was it, that thing that was in the ground?" He remembered it vividly, the ground and sand parting to drag Minka under, like some sort of morbid mouth. That odd slurping noise; and the gurgling noise it made when he had pulled her out… It was sickening, even for Viral himself.

"…It's called the Abyss Grip, or at least by us it is." She paused once again to think. "It was designed by humans to search out and destroy us new model beastmen."

Virals eyes widened a little with surprise. The humans wanted to exterminate them? Why? There were allies, living in peace after the fall of Teppelin City, Lord Genome and the Four Holy Generals. "Why did they want to get rid of the… Uh, newer models?"

"Because… We actually had the power to do things, we would last, you know what I mean?" She looked at him expectantly, and he felt embarrassed that he had no clue what she was speaking about. How long had this 'Abyss Grip' been going on behind their backs? How come he didn't know about the newer models?

"I really don't know… Can you kindly explain?" Viral instantly felt humiliated. He was the Captain of Earth's largest space-voyaging ship and lead earth into that peace conference, yet he didn't know anything about this. How long had Simon and Roissu and the rest been keeping this a secret? So many questions to ask, and it was all so confusing.

"Well, I have to explain a lot to you… It's like you've been living under a rock or something." She frowned. "The older models like you were made by Lord Genome, but you were imbalanced in certain aspects and were lacking certain traits. You cannot reproduce since your animal and human DNA and genetics were imperfect and unbalanced, which is the easiest way I can explain."

Viral gave a slow nod, understanding most of what Minka was saying. He wished she would explain farther, but he kept quiet for now.

"And you older models had a… 'Expiration date', you know what I'm talking about? You burn out after a certain amount of time, you're cells can't multiply so you die off. Since you cannot reproduce and you'll burn out without Lord Genome's method to get your cells to divide again, the older models will all burn out and die sooner or later, which leaves only the humans. Either way, they will be dominant eventually." She paused to think again.

"The newer models like me… We do not have that burn out, and we can also reproduce. We were developed by a beastman scientist who knew what the humans were up to, I guess, so he perfected us newer beastmen from Lord Genome's old methods. The human higher-ups found out before the general beastmen population did, so they developed their own weapon against us. That's the Abyss Grip."

"And… What exactly is the Abyss Grip?" Viral listened attentively, interested and alert.

"The Abyss Grip is… Hm…" She stared up at the ceiling, tracing the cracks and patterns with her yellow eyes. "I don't really know myself… All I know is that its job is to catch us and bury us few and far between, to get rid of us."

"So, what about these newer and older models? There are some key differences, but who was this scientist what developed you? And what about—" Viral felt filled with questions and he hoped he didn't sound impatient or rude.

Minka quickly interrupted him, "I… I think I told you too much already," She looked towards the kitchen area. "You want something to eat? I couldn't really find anything in your cupboards, so I went out early this morning to hunt."

"Uh… But—" The sudden change of subject threw him off, but what made his cheeks flush pink was how she placed a finger on his lips and said,

"Shush. I told you I said too much already," She stood up straight and cleared her throat before wandering off.

When Minka was out of sight, upstairs in an empty, spare room, she heaved a large sigh. Clouds of dust billowed up wherever she stepped, leaving footprints like marks in fresh snow. The dust was thick and whirled in clouds, dancing around in the beams of sun that shone through the tattered, wispy curtains. The room was almost empty, save for a chair cast in the corner, a round-topped table the size of a tire, and a few stacked cardboard boxes. Everything was covered in a thick coat of dust, turning everything fluffy and grey.

She plopped herself onto the floor, sending a cloud of swirling, ancient grey dust into the air and whirling around her before it settled again.

Minka surveyed her surroundings with slit yellow eyes, sharp teeth protruding out of lips that never closed properly. There was something wrong with the house… Or the occupant of the house; Viral. This whole place had an odd feel to it, as if something died and was forgotten. Normally she would've avoided a place with this kind of feel entirely, but being chased by the Abyss Grip, her only option was to take refuge here.

She briefly wondered about her parents then. How many years ago had they been split up by the Abyss Grip? Five? Eight? Probably so. Were they even still alive? Maybe… Just maybe.

Deciding to forget about it, she swirled her finger in the thick dust in front of her. The dust was actually soft, like fur almost, or some good cotton. She began to draw out what she could remember, abstract swirls and large points from her dreams, she would've added colours if she could. Jabbing and swishing here and there, she got up and began to draw beyond the reach of her arms, letting her mind flow; the ideas coming readily like paint to a brush.

"_This is gonna take a while…"_ She thought, a small smile gracing her pale face. A thought suddenly crossed her mind, and the smile grew a tiny bit wider, _"That blue haired devil…"_


	3. Quiet Routines

The pale blue orb shone in the night sky, surrounding it were little dots of light, the moon and the stars. The night was… Lucid and calm, brittle almost, like a stained glass mirror. Her breath came out in a foggy halo around her face; it was cold in the desert at night, scorching during the day. The chill of the night didn't seem to bother her; however, she was too tense to notice much around her. Her blood was running cold, as if someone had dropped ice into her veins, and a chill sweat was developing around her temples and forehead. Her face was ridged, expressionless, emotionless… Waiting.

"_Some have been thought brave because they were too afraid to run away…__ In that case, don__'__t be brave. Run.__" _The gentle touch of a hand, a kiss on the brow, and then they were gone, like spirits in the desert, never to be seen again, not even in dreams. Faceless figures, pale skinned and empty pits for eyes, danced around behind her eyes like morbid ballerinas; taunting and teasing but never getting too close.

"_Remember, love is odd, life is strange, nothing lasts, people change."_

"Minka?" The person in question stirred, her back was stiff and it felt as if she had been sleeping on a shelf. "Minka, are you okay? You look… Unwell." The worried voice said, sounding far away.

"Y-Yeah… 'm fine," Minka moved her mouth, it felt as if she had been eating sand or some other dry substance. She slowly sat up, ignoring her back screaming in protest. She felt disoriented, as if she had been stuffed into a small box, thrown off the roof of a skyscraper then dumped out. Where was she? A clean, white room decorated simply, lying in a large, fluffy bed.

"Do you want me to get you something? Water?" The voice continued to question, still sounding worried. "Where'd you get that cut? It wasn't there before." A gentle hand was placed just over her eyebrow where a long cut twisted itself, shallow enough to not bleed so badly, but dirty and crusted with soil.

"Who… Are you?" Her voice caught in her throat, dried out and tight. Everything was blurry, as if she had gotten water in her eyes. Minka thought for a moment, but all she could remember were those morbid ballerinas with the white faces and endless holes for eyes, mouths agape and thin, grey tongues. She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself, forgetting for a moment what the space around her looked like. The whole place was transformed from white bedroom to a black, airless box.

"It's me; Viral! Minka, are you sure you're okay? Minka!?" Paws on her shoulders; a gentle shake.

"Viral?" Her voice was softer then it had been, almost like she had been afraid and was talking to some kind of monster. Viral's brow furrowed with worry, what had happened? Minka had been at his little place in the desert for a week or two now, he hadn't bothered to count the days, but he had never seen her act like this. They were sleeping in the same bed, had been for about a week, but they kept their backs to each other and nothing was going on between them… Not yet as far as Viral was thinking. He didn't know why, but he had woken up suddenly in the night and a few moments later, Minka had suddenly bolted upright and began to whisper things he didn't understand. He had caught a few words like 'Reno' and 'Serle', but he didn't understand any of it. She had a cut on her face that wasn't there before, making him wonder if she had gone out during the night.

"Yes, it's me." Viral wrapped his arms around her like a blanket, albeit a bit awkwardly, his oversized paws were not meant for small tasks. Her eyes had turned cloudy and she was stiff. He couldn't help but notice her scent, musky and earthy, but there was something sharp underneath, like sweat, fear or nervousness. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"…" She was silent; her lips pushed open by her teeth ever so slightly like they always were. "Have you ever seen them, Viral?"

"Seen who?"

More silence met him like a wall. This was just like her, she would say something cryptic and mysterious, then shut up as if she never said anything. They sat like that for what seemed like hours, not exchanging so much as a word or glance.

"Hey, Viral,"

"Yeah?"

"You wanted to hear more about the Abyss Grip and stuff, right?" She looked over her shoulder at him, her eyes were orange in the dim light of the moon, like an egg yolk or dusk. They had become intense and full of feeling.

"Yes, I would love to," He smiled, putting his paws patiently over his knees.

"The scientist who created the new model of beastmen was a… Dr. Mickle, as I recall. He was brilliant, but once he found out about the human's plans, he decided to start working on his own. He finished perfecting the new model three years before the humans found out, and four years after we were discovered, the Abyss Grip was released."

"How many more of the newer model are out there?"

"Dunno, maybe thirty, but no more then fifty of us are out there. The Abyss Grip got the rest of us, the population of the new model used to be a few thousand…" She went into thoughtful silence for a moment. "But that data is more then four years old, probably. As far as I'm concerned, there are less of us now." Minka crossed her legs, staring out the window as the horizon began to turn a pretty yellow-orange. She wondered what else there was out there, yet to be discovered, but so limited by the Abyss Grip.

Viral watched her, curious yet knowing, every single one of her movements seemed to be carefully calculated, even a simple shift of her arm seemed to need much mental thought on her part. That's why she always seemed to be lost in thought, no matter what she did, yet her eyes were intense and intelligent. Maybe that was a by-product of always having to think… Or maybe it was because of the constant endurance she had to face, the constant drive and instinct to survive engraved so deeply into her mind.

But… What did he know? Viral sighed deeply, frowning as a cold, hard fact hit him. His life before in Lord Genome's military, life with the humans and the time between, those had always been dangerous, there was a constant risk of injury or death, yet… Comparing his life to Minka's, he had always been sheltered in one way or another, a sheltered life. With Lord Genome's military, if he were injured, it would be just a few days in the infirmary and he'd be fine, with the humans it was the same, safer even, and the time in between, living on his own in the desert; he never felt any real threat to himself as he was immortal, and there was nothing of a real danger on his heels.

With Minka, life was different. From the day she was born she had been targeted and hunted down by the faceless monster; the Abyss Grip. There seemed to be no shelter for her, no safe haven or peace of mind.

"Minka… Do you feel… Safe here?"

That was the moment her intense eyes faltered, pupils giving a slight tremble that lasted a split second as her mind worked. She gritted her teeth, the three sets meshing together perfectly. A minute passed in tense silence, then two before she finally answered.

"No."

Viral's shoulders slumped visibly, his expression showed that he was hurt. "Oh…" Was all he said, his eyes downcast as if the white sheets had suddenly become extremely interesting.

"Don't take it personally. Really, I don't exactly feel safe anywhere." Another second of thought. "There's just something wrong with this place… Have you ever felt it?"

"N-No," He stuttered. "I've been here for…" He stopped, but it was frightening. How long had Viral been in his little spot on this earth without others to talk to him, alone and trapped. He had lost count of the days and years, he would've even forgotten his own name sooner or later. "I… Don't know."

Minka looked down and smiled slightly, only now did Viral realize how unnatural a smile looked on her face, how stiff it seemed. Was she forcing it just for him, or was it like that? "Don't worry 'bout it. You know what they say; Live now, there's plenty of time to be dead." She laughed a bit, looking out the window again. The sun was out, it was just another day.

Viral tried to laugh too, but it came out as an uneasy little grunt. _"Live now, there's plenty of time to be dead…"_ The words rung in his mind, repeating and echoing itself. _"Live now, there's plenty of time to be dead… Plenty of time to be dead…Plenty of time… To be dead." _He shut his eyes, grimacing almost as the words planted themselves deep into his memory. No, they were wrong, there wasn't plenty of time to be dead. He knew, many beastmen would pay any price to be immortalized like him, but when it came down to it, immortality was just as bad a watching everybody you know and love wilt away and die while you don't look any different then you did fifty years ago. _"Death isn't so bad,"_ He often found himself thinking when he was alone. _"It's better then being lonely, I bet."_

Weeks passed without anything else strange going on and Viral began to get more comfortable, falling into a daily routine with Minka around. He liked being near her, even if she could barely keep up a conversation for long.

It would start early in the morning. It seemed no matter how early Viral got up, Minka would always be awake before him and out to get breakfast. She would come back later with something to eat, Viral would be the one to prepare it most of the time because he thought since she did the hunting, he should be the one doing the other half of the work. Then Minka would meditate, she would often do that hours on end while Viral kept himself busy with miscellaneous things. Viral often took cat-naps because it was coded into his DNA (the cat part at least) that he needed a lot of sleep. In the afternoon, Minka would be finished meditating and she would sit around and read or write. Viral would be curled around her feet or even on her lap taking another cat-nap. Minka often said Viral meowed or murmured in his sleep, but when he asked what he said she would just laugh and walk away.

At night they would eat again then a few hours later, go to bed. Viral would mostly head to bed first, then it was Minka afterwards. It was a comfortable routine.

It changed one afternoon, however…

Minka was reading a book on desert plants and Viral was taking a nap curled up on her lap, ears twitching every few minutes.

A gentle, almost hesitant knock on the door…

Who could that be?


End file.
